Hats On, Hats Off

 Aakash Vasireddy | Blog Post #3 | Non-Fiction Writing | October 21st, 2021

Society places a high importance on the clothes we wear. From the cheapest t-shirt to the most expensive jackets and coats; from the shoes we showcase on our feet to the pieces of jewelry that glimmer brightly in the sunlight - we care about our clothes. Choosing an outfit to class or to work can be the most stressful part during a morning routine. However, the process could also be the most fun part about a morning routine, or, perhaps, even the most boring part of a morning routine. One important aspect to note, though, is that the outfits we wear in the outside world typically express something about us - our personality, our class, our interests, and more. We make choices about what we want to use to represent ourselves. For me, among all my articles of clothing, my hats have been one of the most noticeable things about me since I have started wearing them.

I didn’t always wear hats (obviously), but the story of how I started wearing hats did not come by any means of planning. Towards the end of Subbie Year, I occasionally visited Ekam who lives right across from my house, essentially in my backyard besides from the pond and road placed in between us. In his room, Ekam had about ten different hats that he used to wear, all stacked and organized cleanly on his dresser. For some reason, I began trying out the hats, experimenting with both front-facing and backward-facing styles while Ekam played video games on the desk beside me. After wearing these hats for the first time in a while, I said to myself, “Well this isn’t too bad, is it?” I’m not fully sure how much I told my parents about my recent endeavors - it couldn’t have been much - but within the next few days, my parents bought me a hat sporting one of my favorite superheroes: Captain America. Then began a wonderful journey with this piece of fabric, one which has evolved into where I would consider it today.

Coming into freshman year, I began wearing the Captain America hat every day to school, pairing it with my quite limited range of outfit selections and showing up to class. I would wear the hat while playing basketball, doing work, and really anything else that I got up to during a given day. However, the only time that I could not wear the hat was when I wore my Captain America athletic shirt as I did want to double-up - that’s a bit weird. To clarify, getting the shirt nor hat that had Captain America on it was intentional, but events simply played out as such. Eventually, the Captain America hat became part of my identity for the people that knew me. In my time as a Subbie Buddy, the Subbies would like to note my hat and joke around about wearing it during events. Friends and teachers even started making references to the hat, marking it as something you should look for if you want to find me.

As time went on, less people were surprised to see the hat in the hallways passing by, but as the tally of days wearing the hat increased, the days without the hat became much more emphasized. Any day that I did not wear the hat called for inquiry, and it seemed to be expected of me that I would bring the hat to school everyday. In the present, I’m still questioned whenever I do not wear the hat as it has become such a staple of my identity among my peers. A subbie right now will note the absence of my hat every time he sees me, in the halls, during a Subbie Buddy event, or anywhere else. Even Mr. Beesley made jokes during first period Yearbook about my hat routine, saying “So we’re hatless today?” as I sat down at my spot next to the monitors in the WAC lab.

Eventually, freshman year, sophomore year, and junior year with the Captain America hat passed, but I started to wear the hat less often. Although I must note that the hat’s use over quarantine grew quite limited without going out. I don’t think it was because I disliked wearing the hat; it was most likely because I just did not care too much anymore whether I had my hat or not. However, over the summer before Senior year as I walked the white-tiled floors of Marketplace Mall, I grew interested in a red hat displayed in the small men’s section in Forever 21. The material of the hat felt different than my Captain America hat, and the part of the hat to either tighten or loosen had a clip with a fabric one slides to their satisfaction which differed from the snapback style the Captain America hat had. Because of my inability to properly commit to buying anything, I did not buy the hat for a long time. I did not need the hat as I already had others. However, one day when I felt especially good about spending a bit of money, I came to Forever 21 - the fourth store of that mall trip - went straight to the men’s section, and retrieved the red hat.

I began wearing the hat over the summer, meaning many of my friends, peers, and others that had seen my Captain America hat consistently would not see or hear about the new hat that I recently acquired. However, as I got to recollect with more of my friends during the pandemic because of vaccinations, testing, and other outside opportunities, more people learned about my newest pick up. Following a workout at the YMCA that I had finished, I sat in the lobby waiting for my dad to pick me up, but was greeted by a couple friends - Anna and Michael - who had arrived to start their workout soon. When Anna saw my hat, she was taken aback as she had not seen anything other than my Captain America hat before. “Oh no! I’m not used to it!” she exclaimed. I did not get that same reaction with most of my other friends as most simply said “New Hat,” but the red hat came as a switch up to something my peers were used to.

Curious to find out what my closest friends thought about my hat, I posted a poll on Instagram asking whether people liked my Captain America hat or my newest red hat better. Looking at the results, my pollers seemed to be pretty split, but a slight majority favored the Captain America hat surprisingly. Brooks even added to his response saying that he liked the red hat, but the Captain America hat was simply “too iconic.”

The hat has been something I wear all the time now, and I seem to note the absence of not wearing the hat more now than I did with my Captain America hat - perhaps because I have only been sporting the hat for the last three months. My hat-wearing started with a simple interest and turned into a habit which my friends now know me by. There are so many different ways of wearing hats which might be why I enjoy wearing them so much. Of course, the red hat complements many of my outfits, adding a bit of color to my dark toned hoodies and sweats while also pairing with my red sneakers and Beats. However, in addition to complementing clothing, my hat changes in style depending on the activity at hand or - to a degree - the mood I am in.

For example, I might wear the hat backwards when I’m feeling especially “cool” that day (wow, that sounds quite lame, doesn’t it) or if I’m playing a sport like basketball. Quick PSA: don’t try to shoot a basketball with your cap facing forwards because you will either airball by a few feet or have absolutely no arc on your shot: at least if you have my jumpshot. I might wear the hat forwards when I need protection from the sun (as you’re supposed to do with hats - that’s kind of the point), but I might also wear the hat forwards when I want to put my hood on or if I need to put my Beats over my head. When I’m tired, I might pull the bill low over my head, and even when I need to sleep, I can remove the hat and place it over my head as I have done on countless occasions. Finally, I could wear the hat in whatever wacky style I want to, whether that be sideways, 45 degrees, on top of my hood, or whatever else.

My hats seem to be a quite defined part of my identity, and I don’t think I will ever break the habit of wearing them anytime soon. Starting a hat collection could become a small possibility… Maybe I can have a collection so cleanly stacked like Ekam’s was on his dresser which piqued my interest and led me to wearing hats now. Who knows...